κοράλλιον

Forms

κορᾰ́λλῐον (korállion) n (genitive κορᾰλλῐ́ου); second declension^[1] Variants: κοράλιον (Sextus Empiricus), κουράλιον (Theophrastus and others), and κωράλ(λ)ιον, Attic according to Herodian.^[2][3]

Etymology

The origin is obscure; it is probably a loanword, perhaps a Mediterranean word.^[3][4] Lewy compared Biblical Hebrew גּוֹרָל (gôrāl, “small stone”), and Beekes finds this convincing, though Émilie Masson criticised it.^[5][3] Rosół lists it among the rejected Semitic etymologies.^[6]

Schrader and Nehring took it as a fusion of κόρη (kórē, “girl”) and ἅλς (háls, “sea”), “daughter of the sea”, a translation of a similar Indian expression.^[5][3][4] The spellings with ⟨κουρ-⟩ and ⟨κωρ-⟩ beside ⟨κορ-⟩ are put down to association with κόρη (kórē) and its variants.^[5][4] Wiktionary takes Beekes to treat the “daughter of the sea” explanation as folk etymology.^[1]

It was borrowed as Latin corallium, also cūralium.^[5][4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Theophrastus, of the 4th–3rd century BC, describes the κουράλιον in his work on stones as red like a stone and shaped like a root, growing in the sea.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

It meant coral, especially red coral, in Dioscorides and the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, and Hesychius glosses it as a red stone of the sea.^[2][9][3] Derivatives are κοραλλικός (korallikós, “coral-like”) and κοραλλίζω (korallízō, “to look like coral”) in Dioscorides.^[3][4] In Lucian and Alciphron the form was sometimes read as a diminutive of κόρη (kórē), “little girl”, “figurine”.^[2][10] Coptic borrowed it.^[11]

Medieval Greek had κοράλλιν (korállin), whence Modern Greek κοράλλι (koráli), the coral animal and the material.^[12][8] Through Latin corallium the word spread to French corail, English coral and German Koralle.^[13]

Timeline

• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus describes it, as κουράλιον, among stones.^[2][8]
• 1st century AD – Dioscorides uses κοράλλιον for red coral.^[2][3][14]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – Sextus Empiricus writes κοράλιον.^[2]
• Modern Greek – κοράλλι (koráli) continues the medieval form.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. Coral, especially red coral.^[2][3][15]

Word family

• κοραλλικός (korallikós)

Related words

• Latin corallium
• English coral

Usage notes

Chæréphon records a separate use in Lucian and Alciphron for a “figurine”, taken as a diminutive of κόρη (kórē).^[10][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
4. ^ a b c d e Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b c d Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
7. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
8. ^ a b c Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
9. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
10. ^ a b Charbonnet, André (2025), Chæréphon, v4.7: supplement to Bailly from papyri, inscriptions and recent lexica
11. ^ Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
12. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
13. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
14. ^ Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
15. ^ Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli